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VOL.  I. 


MARCH  5,  1881.' 


No.  1. 


LECTURES  OF 


GEORGE  CHAIN E Y, 

Delivered  every  Sunday  afternoon ,  at  2.45  P.M.,  in  Paine  Memorial  Half  Boston ,  Mass. 


Lessons  from  tlie  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Heinzen. 

3^=*  Published  by  GEORGE  CHAINEV,  No.  3  Union  Park,  Boston. 
Entered  as  Second  Class  Mail  Matter. 


Copyrighted,  188  r. 


T o  the  Liberal  Public 


Dear  Friends, —  We  have  a*  great  and  noble  work  before  us,  that  is  worthy  of  our  i 
warmest  love  and  most  earnest  thought  and  action.  We  have  to  persuade  men  to  change  the  ' 
livery  of  servitude  for  the  beautiful  garments  of  liberty,  to  drive  off  the  deadly  malaria  of 
piety  with  the  healthy  breezes  of  humanity,  substitute  the  vagaries  of  theology  for  the  reali¬ 
ties  of  science,  to  make  a  clearing  in  the  dense  forests'  of  superstition  with  the  axe  of  reason, 
so  that  the  comforts  of  a  higher  and  richer  civilization  shall  follow,  and  make  the  wilderness 
blossom  as  a  rose.  Our  work  for  the  present  is  largely  a  labor  of  love.  _  We  must  teach  and 
agitate,  destroy  and  build,  protect  against  wrong  and  uphold  the  Right, — and  especially,  by 
devoting  ourselves  to  the  Right  for  Right’s  sake,  show  that  the  morality  of  the  Church,  that 
induces  men  and  women  to  spend  their  lives  in  driving  a  bargain  with  a  deity,  is  in  itself  the 
mother  of  all  the  teeming  immoralities  of  our  times.  Because  of  this,  let  us  bear  proudly 
the  title  of  being  infidels  to  the  Church,  because  .she  herself  is  the  worst  form  of  infidelity 
that  ever  sought  to  hide  the  shining  stars  of  truth. 

In  my  eighteenth  year,  following  an  impulse  pf  the  heart,  I  entered  the  ministry,  and 
gave  my  youthful  enthusiasm  to  what  Karl  Heinzen  called  the  stony  sum  total  of  all  vices 
and  all  despotism,  of  all  darkness  and  barbarity, —  the  Church.  After  a  bondage  of  ten  years, 
seven  in  the  Methodist  and  three  in  the  Unitarian  ministry,  I  have  broken  every  fetter  and 
tasted  the  full  blessing  of  liberty.  Inspired  by  its  thrilling  joy,  I  consecrate  the  remainder  of 
my  life  to  the  work  of  securing  the  same  joy  for  all.  Though  recognizing  that  deeds  are 
better  than  words,  and  that  you  by  patiently  dping  the  Right  for  the  Right’s  sake  are  laying 
the  foundations  of  the  Kingdom  of  Man,  there  still  remains  a  great  work  to  be  done  in  voicing 
the  hope  and  work  of  Liberals.  Knowing  full  well. that  this  is  my  portion  of  our  common 
task,  I  invite  vou  all  to  co-operate  with  me,  so  that  the  words  I  speak  may  be  made  useful  by 
your  deeds.  ’  . 

I  have  arranged  to  deliver  a  lecture  every  Sunday  at  Paine  Memorial  Hall,  and  to  publish 
them  in  weekly  numbers,  at  $i.co  a  year..  .  This  is  cheaper  than  they  can  be  afforded,  unless 
you  second  my  efforts  and  give  me  a  large  circulation;  In  the  fullest  confidence  that  you  will 
only  be  too  glad  to  do  so,  I  have  commenced  to  issue  The  Infidel  Pulpit.  The  way  to 
assist  is  to  ask  your  liberal  friends  to  subscribe  for  it,  or  send  me  their  names,  so  that  I  can 
send  them  sample  copies.  Some  of  you  can  afford  to  buy  a  hundred  copies  occasionally  of  a  . 
single  lecture  for  general  distribution.  By  sending  orders  in  advance,  I  can  send  them  to  you 
for  $1.00.  If  you  cannot  afford  to  subscribe  yourself,  perhaps  you  can  secure  me  a  list  of  five 
subscribers,  and  then  I  will  send  you  a  free  copy.  I  want  you  all  to  become  members  of  my 
parish,  and  join  with  me  heart  and  hand  in  laying  the  axe  of  reason  at  the  root  of  the 
dead  tree  of  superstition. 

Yours,  for  Liberty  or  Death, 

GEORGE  CHAINEY. 

O-A-IR/ID  FEOTOGEALFiEIS  FOE.  SALE. 

Cabinet  size,  25  cents.  Card  size,  15  cents. 

foundation  stones,  a  neat  volume  of  Sermons  published  by  the 
author,  when  he  was  a  Unitarian  minister.  Sent,  postage  paid,  for  75  cts. 
These  discourses,  though  containing  some  sentiments  I  now  discard,  will,  I  think,  still  be 
found  of  service  to  most  Liberals,  through  revealing  the  path  over  which  I  struggled  into  light 
and  liberty. 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Heinzen, 


I  feel  as  though  it  was  my  duty  to  com¬ 
mence  this  lecture  with  an  explanation,  if 
not  an  apology.  I  do  not  wish  any  one  to 
think  for  a  moment  that  I  feel  adequate  to 
draw  the  full  lesson  that  is  to  be  learned 
from  the  life  and  work  of  Karl  Heinzen. 
That  can  be  done  only  by  one  who  knew 
him  personally,  and  to  whom  is  open  the 
rich  storehouse  of  his  thought,  locked  to  me 
in  the  German  language.  The  resolution  to 
speak  on  this  subject  was  born  far  more  of 
feeling  than  of  knowledge.  It  was  an  im¬ 
pulse  of  the  heart,  springing  from  the  grate¬ 
ful  remembrance  of  the  service  he  had  been 
to  me.  Such  emotions  often  lead  us  to 
essay  tasks  which,  though  lying  beyond  our 
strength  to  accomplish,  yet  prove  of  infinite 
service  to  us,  owing  to  the  inspiration  that 
must  always  flow  forth  from  our  striving  to 
be  true  to  our  best  instincts.  He  who  never 
attempts  to  do  anything  that  reason  says 
lies  beyond  his  reach  will  never  do  what  is 
within  the  compass  of  attainment.  All  prog¬ 
ress  is  made  by  striving  to  grasp  more  than 
we  can  hold.  The  results  of  human  life  are 
far  more  in  what  we  become  than  in  what 
we  achieve.  If  it  were  otherwise,  it  were  a 
mad  world  indeed.  The  last  ten  years  of 
my  life  have  been  spent  in  learning  things 
that  have  now  to  be  set  aside  as  worse 
than  useless.  When  eighteen  years  of  age, 
through  following  the  impulse  of  my  heart, 
I  entered  the  service  of  the  ministry,  and 
gave  my  youthful  enthusiasm  to  what  Karl 
Heinzen  called  “the  stony  sum  total  of  all 


vices  and  all  despotism,  of  all  darkness  and 
barbarity,  the  Church.” 

While  if  I  could  have  been,  through 
proper  and  early  education,  led  to  give  the 
devotion  I  gave  to  the  shadows  and  falsi¬ 
ties  of  superstition  to  the  realities  and 
truths  of  nature,  it  would  have  been  great 
gain,  and  saved  me  much  mental  and  heart 
pain.  Still,  I  cannot  but  acknowledge  that, 
through  being  true  to  myself,  even,  that 
service  was  by  no  means  lost.  So,  though  I 
cannot  paint  for  you  the  full  life-picture  of 
this  great  man,  you  will  at  least  permit  me, 
without  blame,  to  cluster  around  his  name  a 
few  flowers  of  truth,  springing  forth  largely 
from  my  own  heart,  but  watered  and  re¬ 
freshed  with  the  healthful  light  and  rain  of 
this  man’s  thought  and  feeling.  To  some 
of  you,  he  was  doubtless  an  entire  stranger. 
Perhaps  you  hardly  knew  that  such  a  man 
lived  and  died  among  you.  If  you  heard 
his  name,  it  never  thrilled  you  to  the  inner¬ 
most  recesses  of  your  being,  as  it  would  if 
you  had  ever  felt  the  sublime  heroism  of  his 
moral  and  mental  life. 

His  name  was  never  hurrahed  by  the 
crowd.  The  demagogues  of  our  time  never 
thought  of  asking  him  to  lead  them  in  a 
campaign,  the  almost  sole  aim  of  which  is 
to  gain  the  spoils  of  office.  He  seldom  fig¬ 
ured  in  the  newspaper  lists  of  notable  per¬ 
sonages.  Still,  that  is  no  reason  why  he 
should  be  considered  unworthy  of  your  in¬ 
terest.  These  cheap  notorieties  are  no  cri¬ 
terion  of  real  worth.  The  most  potent 


2 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Ileinzen. 


influences  of  nature  are  those  that  work 
silently.  The  light,  the  persistence  of  force, 
the  law  of  gravitation,  are  mightier  far  than 
howling  wind,  noisy  thunder,  or  roaring 
seas.  We  are  awed  by  the  strength  of  the 
thunder-bolt  that  shatters  a  mighty  oak  into 
splinters ;  but  it  was  a  far  mightier  task  for 
the  silent  forces  of  nature  that  had  wooed 
it  out  of  the  earth,  and  built  it  up  patiently 
through  the  long  years,  until  it  stood  there, 
firm-rooted  in  the  ground,  and  spreading  its 
broad  limbs  as  if  to  caress  at  once  the  earth 
and  skies  in  its  glad  embrace.  Our  life  is 
like  the  earth  reaching  out  into  the  infini¬ 
ties.  If  our  world  was  not  held  from  the 
sun  by  other  planets,  we  would  fall  into 
the  sun;  and,  if  they  were  not  held  from 
us  by  still  other  stars,  they  would  fall  into 
us.  And  so  on  forever.  So  that  beyond  all 
the  stars  we  see  in  a  clear  night  —  so  far 
removed  from  us  that  their  light,  always 
travelling  toward  us,  yet  never  reaches  us 
—  there  are  no  doubt  worlds  that  are  still 
part  of  that  incomprehensible,  because  end¬ 
less,  chain  that  binds  us  so  firm  and  safe 
amid  the  Titanic  and  infinite  forces  of 
nature.  So  is  it  in  the  moral  world.  Our 
life  is  in  some  real  way  bound  up  with  every 
other  life.  Each  great  and  noble  soul  that 
has  breathed  forth  sentiments  of  justice, 
truth,  or  liberty,  has  contributed  to  the 
moral  atmosphere  that  goes  to  the  making  of 
our  character,  as  truly  as  the  physical  atmos¬ 
phere  goes  into  the  building  of  our  bodies. 
Hence,  in  this  lecture,  I  shall  lay  but  little 
importance  on  the  historical  events  of  its 
subject’s  life.  It  scarcely  matters  where  such 
a  man  was  born  and  lived,  so  long  as  we 
know  the  quality  of  the  work  he  performed. 
That  is  the  thing  that  abides  when  names 
of  places  and  dates  carved  on  the  most  en¬ 
during  granite  or  marble  have  crumbled  into 
dust.  My  desire  is  not  to  train  your  mem¬ 
ory,  or  even  to  eulogize,  but  simply  to  make 
you  feel  a  little  of  -  the  moral  force  of  Karl 
Heinzen’s  life.  This  is  the  worship  of  the 
true  Liberal.  Worship  means  the  recogni¬ 
tion  of  worthship,  and  the  heart  and  mind 
hungering  to  be  blessed  with  the  same. 


Many  have  bent  the  knee  this  day  to  gods, 
creations  of  the  imagination  in  the  skies, 
hungering  and  thirsting  to  become  more  like 
those  to  whom  they  ascribe  every  excellence. 
The  fears  of  ignorance  and  the  craft  of 
priests  have  mingled  so  much  that  is  ut¬ 
terly  unworthy  with  what  is  worthy  in  these 
ideals  that  the  worshipper  is  degraded  and 
cursed  instead  of  elevated  and  blessed. 
While  we  abhor  the  object  of  worship,  pity  \ 
and  respect  the  worshipper,  still  we  cannot  \ 
but  reverence  that  inward  hunger  of  the 
heart  that  leads  them  to  look  above  them, 
craving  goodness,  as  the  flowers  turn  hunger¬ 
ing  and  thirsting  toward  the  light  and  dew 
of  heaven.  But  for  us  the  skies  are  depopu¬ 
lated.  We  no  longer  strain  our  eyes  to  see 
gods,  any  more  than  we  think  of  looking  for 
fairies  when  we  take  a  walk  in  the  woods. 
But  that  does  not  keep  us  from  looking  for 
the  sweet  wild-flowers  that  fill  the  air  with 
fragrance,  or  for  some  new  vista  of  beauty 
through  the  leafy  avenues.  Yea,  the  absence 
of  all  belief  in  these  mystical  beings  has  only 
prepared  us  the  better  to  discern  the  worth  U 
of  Nature,  and  to  drink  deeper  draughts  of  I 
inspiration  from  he*  perennial  springs  of  \J 
beauty  and  truth.  So,  though  we  bend  not 
the  knee  of  craven  fear  in  this  temple  of  lib¬ 
erty,  utter  no  fulsome  eulogy  to  unseen  and 
supernatural  beings,  yet  our  hearts  and 
minds  turn,  hungering  and  thirsting,  like 
the  flowers  to  the  sun,  toward  all  worth, 
truth,  justice,  or  beauty  in  man  or  nature. 
Though  denying  all  religions,  yet  we  are 
more  than  religious.  Though  scorning 
every  form  of  prayer,  yet  we  are  more  than 
prayerful.  Though  chanting  no  psalms,  yet 
the  sentiments  that  here  exhale  their  fra¬ 
grance  should  lift  us  on  their  wings  into  the 
spirit  and  harmony  of  the  blending  music  of 
wisdom  and  love.  Though  blinded  not  with 
the  dazzling  glory  of  gods  nor  of  supernat¬ 
ural  saviors,  yet  every  strong  and  true  man 
or  woman  is  for  us  a  savior,  and  every  prin¬ 
ciple  that  underlies  the  rights  and  joys  of 
all  the  race  worthy  of  the  supreme  loyalty  of 
our  hearts  and  minds.  To  reverence,  to  love, 
and  to  understand  the  worth  of  another, 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Heinzen. 


3 


whether  living  or  dead,  is  not  to  flatter.  No 
one  can  truly  honor  the  worth  of  man  but  the 
Liberal.  Every  church  is  founded  on  the 
degradation  of  man.  Every  one  who  enters 
a  church  to  join  in  the  worship  must  leave 
his  manhood  at  the  door.  Though  he  have 
walked  uprightly  among  men,  been  a  loving 
husband,  a  faithful  father,  a  kind  friend, 
divided  his  bread  with  the  hungry,  and  com- 
( forted  the  afflicted,  yet  all  that  must  be  re¬ 
nounced,  that  he  may  give  a  jealous  God  all 
the  glory,  and  say,  “We  beseech  thee,  good 
Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  most  miserable 
sinners.”  But  here  we  claim  all  that  we 
claim  for  ourselves  on  the  street  or  at  home. 
Here  we  honor  and  respect  ourselves.  Be¬ 
neath  this  roof,  erected  to  the  memory  of  a 
true  patriot  and  reformer,  whose  country 
was  the  world,  and  to  do  good  his  religion, 
we  can  unite  to  honor  every  other  patriot 
and  reformer  whose  life  has  been  consecrated 
to  the  great  and  divine  service  of  humanity, 
j  among  whom  there  ranks  none  more  worthy 
of  our  most  sincere  admiration  and  emula- 
r‘  tion  than  Karl  Heinzen. 

^  In  his  own  words,  we  can  say :  — 

“  ’Twas  Freedom  that  my  spirit  4ired  and  strengthened, 
’Twas  Truth  that  my  heart’s  springtime  kept  and 
lengthened. 

And  Nature  fed  me  silently  my  fill.  , 

Not  by  base  arts  and  flatteries  sought  I  favor, 

My  speech  ne’er  of  hypocrisy  did  savor, 

Nor  open  truth  held  I  as  contraband. 

The  torch  of  thought  I  have  kept  brightly  flaming; 
Toward  high  endeavor  have  kept  boldly  aiming, 

And  never  thought  it  shame  to  be  a  man.” 

It  was  only  about  a  year  ago  since  I  was 
first  introduced  to  the  writings  of  Karl 
Heinzen,  by  one  of  his  ardent  admirers,  Dr. 
Ludwig  Fritch,  of  Evansville,  Ind.  It  was 
at  a  critical  time  in  my  life.  I  had  just 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Robert  G.  Inger- 
soll,  and  found  that  the  highest  intellectual 
power  and  the  most  Titanic  affectional 
nature  could  live  and  flourish  without  any 
doctrine  of  religion.  For  three  years,  I  had 
been  steadily  drifting  away  from  supernat¬ 
uralism.  Christianity  had  become  to  me 
the  embodiment  of  falsehood.  The  very 
idea  of  the  Church  was  daily  growing  more 
and  more  repugnant  to  my  sense  of  right. 


As  I  turned  page  after  page  of  the  history 
of  the  past,  I  found  that,  in  spite  of  all  it 
boasts  to  have  done  for  mankind,  our  art, 
our  literature,  our  science,  our  education, 
our  liberties,  have  all  been  torn  from  its 
covetous  grasp  from  time  to  time  in  mo¬ 
ments  of  sheer  desperation,  as  starving  meis 
have  sometimes  snatched  something  to  eat 
from  the  jaws  of  a  cruel  tiger.  I  was  ex¬ 
pected  by  my  church  to  say  God,  to  read 
hymns  of  fulsome  eulogy,  to  open  my  lips 
in  supplication,  and  compelled  by  my  posi¬ 
tion  to  profess  to  be  a  Christian.  I  went  to 
my  task  on  Sundays  like  a  whipped  slave. 
I  knew  not  what  to  do.  To  leave  the 
Church  was  renouncing  the  only  certain 
means  I  had  of  gaining  a  livelihood  for 
myself  and  family.  I  had  done  it  once 
before,  and  fortune  favored  me.  But  the 
pain  of  it,  in  the  loss  of  love  and  friend¬ 
ship,  had  been  so  bitter  that  I  constantly 
wondered  how  I  endured  it.  In  moments  of 
enthusiasm,  we  often  do  things  we  can  never 
repeat,  because  the  retrospective  glance  pal¬ 
sies  us  with  fear.  Love  and  friendship  are 
too  precious  to  be  lightly  thrown  away, 
especially  when  you  know  that  all  your 
honor  will  be  treated  with  contempt,  and 
you,  who  have  been  loyal  at  so  great  a  cost, 
denounced  as  a  traitor. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  I  was  deceived.  Surely 
there  must  be  some  remnant  of  truth  in 
these  things  before  which  the  world  had  so 
long  bowed.  It  was  not  much  that  was  ex¬ 
pected  of  me.  I  was  already  an  infidel  to 
every  .other  church,  and  in  this  one  I  was 
supposed  to  be  perfectly  free.  In  this  frame 
of  mind,  I  took  up  carelessly  for  the  first 
time  a  work  of  Karl  Heinzen.  On  the  fourth 
page,  I  read :  “  Religion,  which  pretends 
to  be  pre-eminently  the  teacher  or  even  the 
creator  of  humanity,  forms  a  direct  contra¬ 
diction  of  it,  even  should  she  prescribe  many 
actions  which  in  their  special  operation  can 
be  human.  Robbing  the  human  being  of 
self -sovereignty,  she  thus  robs  him  of  his  own 
motives,  as  well  as  his  own  aims  ;  she  crushes 
out  this  instinct  of  honor  which  makes  him 
responsible  to  himself ;  she  condemns  his 


4 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Keinzen. 


highest  power — reason — to  suicide,  in  order 
to  set  faith  above  its  grave ;  she  makes  his 
own  nature  an  object  of  fear  to  him;  she 
turns  him  away  from  real  life,  the  only  field 
for  his  human  tasks,  in  order,  in  an  imagin¬ 
ary  life,  to  make  him  either  a  blessed  angel 
who  no  longer  needs  humanity,  or  a  con¬ 
demned  sinner  whom  she  can  help  no  more  ; 
she  leaves  him  no  free  choice,  but  makes  his 
will  and  his  acts  only  the  practice  of  obedi¬ 
ence  to  an  external  law  ;  and,  where  self-sat¬ 
isfaction  should  be  his  sole  aim,  she  presses 
upon  him  as  motive  either  the  fear  or  the 
approval  of  a  so-called  higher  authority. 
The  religious  believer  is  man  denied  and 
renounced :  the  free  human  being  is  man 
recognized  and  restored.  In  other  words, 
man  begins  where  ceases  the  believer ;  and 
the  intelligent  liberation  from  religion  is  the 
real  development  into  manhood.”  To  de¬ 
scribe  my  feelings  is  not  possible.  Every 
word  was  backed  with  my  complete  self-con¬ 
sciousness.  I  said  to  myself :  Here  is  a  man 
indeed  from  whose  gaze  no  sham  can  hide  the 
truth.  This  man  not  only  speaks  the  truth, 
but  is  the  truth.  I  read  on  through  the 
pamphlet,  intoxicated  with  a  wild  delight. 
Every  line  was  as  bright  and  luminous  as  the 
noonday  sun,  every  word  charged  with  jus 
tice  and  conscience.  To  break  from  the 
Church  into  the  world  where  such  a  moral 
giant  lived  and  toiled  for  truth  and  liberty 
became  at  once  the  noblest  aim  of  life.  To 
stand  in  company  with  such  a  mind  seemed 
more  desirable  than  the  fellowship  of  all  the 
timid,  compromising  sentimentalists  ..whose 
communion  I  enjoyed  in  the  Unitarian 
Church.  Through  the  long  vistas  his  pro¬ 
phetic  mind  opened  before  me,  I  saw  grander 
ideals  and  possibilities  of  a  noble,  service¬ 
able  life  than  I  had  ever  dreamed  of  be¬ 
fore.  From  that  day  to  this,  I  have  never 
heard  his  name  mentioned  without  its  thrill¬ 
ing  my  whole  being.  One  of  the  lessons  he 
helped  me  to  learn  is  that  manhood,  real 
humanity,  is  impossible  without  the  total  sur¬ 
render  of  religion.  He  or  she  who  makes 
any  compromise  with  it  does  to  that  degree 
become  inhuman.  To  be  a  man,  one  must 


give  to  every  other  man  every  right  he  claims 
for  himself.  The  supreme  right  of  life  is  to 
be  and  belong  to  one’s  self,  and  whoever  ac¬ 
knowledges  any  authority  above  man  and  the 
rights  of  man  must  regard  his  fellow-being 
in  the  light  of  a  slave.  He  can  neither  be¬ 
long  to  himself  nor  extend  that  right  to  any¬ 
one  else.  One  may  not  love  every  one  else. 
The  command  of  Christianity  to  do  so  is  un¬ 
natural.  But  it  is  always  possible  to  be  per¬ 
fectly  just  toward  and  grant  every  right  to 
the  person  who  is  for  us  the  most  disagree¬ 
able.  What  good  does  a  profession  of  love 
do  me  from  the  man  who  picks  my  pocket 
or  poisons  the  minds  of  my  children  with 
base  principles  ?  That  is  what  the  Christian 
Church  is  doing  every  moment  of  its  exist¬ 
ence.  What  has  this  boasted  love  done  for 
humanity?  It  preaches  submission  to  our 
enemies.  We  are  to  give  to  Csesar  the  things 
that  be  Caesar’s,  though  his  foot  is  on  our 
necks.  Its  only  comfort  for  the  miseraole 
and  oppressed  is  the  promise  of  future  bliss.  J 
It  feeds  thousands  with  a  few  loaves  and! 
fishes;  it  keeps  the  slave  a  slave,  and  theV 
beggar  a  beggar ;  it  offers  prayers  in  church  ^ 
for  God’s  blessing  on  tyrants;  it  puts  into 
the  mouths  of  those  who  daily  wrong  us 
hypocritical  professions,  that  disarm  our  just 
wrath  and  keep  us  helpless  and  dependent ; 
it  leads  man  to  look  for  help  from  without, 
when  his  dependence  should  be  upon  him¬ 
self  ;  it  throws  the  responsibilities  of  wrongs 
upon  supernatural  and  absent  parties  whom 
we  can  bring  neither  to  trial  nor  reforma¬ 
tion. 

If  we  could  get  God  and  the  devil  into 
school  or  a  court  of  justice,  we  might  induce 
them,  as  Burns  advised  one  of  them.,  to  take 
a  thought  and  mend.  It  keeps  the  head  at 
war  with  the  heart.  The  kingdom  divided 
against  itself  or  built  on  a  compromise  can¬ 
not  stand.  No  more  can  the  individual. 
Love  cannot  be  commanded  nor  entreated. 

It  must  spring  spontaneously  out  of  the 
heart.  There  must  be  the  outward  condi¬ 
tions  that  produce  it,  just  as  much  as  there 
must  be  soil,  light,  and  warmth  to  cause  a 
plant  to  grow  and  blossom  into  beauty. 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Heinzen. 


5 


When  violets  grow  on  icebergs  and  snow¬ 
drifts,  you  may  perhaps  find  a  Christian, 
but  not  before.  No  law  of  man  or  of  God, 
if  there  is  one,  can  compel  love.  There  is 
nothing  in  life  that  yields  such  bliss  or  out 
of  which  so  many  other  blessings  spring. 
But  to  endeavor  to  force  it  into  existence 
generally  drives  it  away.  But  right  is  the 
pure  perception  of  reason.  It  need  not  be 
suspended  by  any  one  for  an  instant  or  on 
a  single  doubt.  Let  the  mind  be  once  free 
from  the  distortions  and  falsities  of  theol¬ 
ogy,  and  it  at  once  perceives  the  fundamen¬ 
tal  law  of  the  equality  of  human  rights. 
Religion,  from  first  to  last,  cultivates  injus¬ 
tice  and  crime.  Freethought  and  unbelief 
uphold  right  and  justice,  from  first  to  last, 
for  their  own  salves.  Every  organized  wrong 
and  injustice  can  be  traced  to  the  influence 
of  the  Church  in  authorizing  and  maintain¬ 
ing  standards  of  authority  outside  of  the 
individual  man.  Every  advance  made  by 
the  world  in  the  right  adjustment  of  our 
social  relations  has  been  through  the  tri¬ 
umph  of  the  spirit  of  humanity  over  external 
standards.  Karl  Heinzen  saw  clearly  that 
all  titles  and  honors  of  kingship  and  aristoc¬ 
racy,  saintship  and  priesthood,  and  all  obedi¬ 
ence  to  any  authority  higher  than  the  per¬ 
ception  of  human  reason  concerning  what 
is  right  and  just  between  man  and  man,  is 
the  surrender  of  our  manhood.  However 
much  good  desire  there  may  be  in  the  heart 
of  the  religious  devotee,  the  giving  up  the 
right  to  think  for  himself,  the  loss  of  his 
own  self-respect,  the  acknowledgment  of  an 
allegiance  to  a  God,  make  him  a  criminal 
against  humanity.  He  deepens  the  cloud 
of  our  ignorance,  casts  a  stain  upon  our 
honor,  and  drags  us  deeper  by  all  the  weight 
of  his  character  into  the  mire  of  degradation. 

Another  most  valuable  lesson  I  learned 
from  Karl  Heinzen  was  that  the  new  idea 
of  evolution  and  organic  development  is  by 
no  means  to  be  worshipped  as  a  god.  There 
is  a  great  tendency  in  our  times  to  say  that 
there  is  a  stream  of  tendency,  a  law  of 
growth,  going  on,  and  bearing  us  onward 
steadily  to  perfection.  Because  so  much 


has  been  accomplished  in  nature  by  evolu¬ 
tion,  thousands  are  so  dazzled  by  this  prin¬ 
ciple  that  they  fail  to  see  that  revolution, 
or  resistance  to  the  tendency  of  things,  is 
the  highest  prerogative  of  man.  The  ideal 
state,  or  justice,  is  perceived  by  pure  reason  ; 
and,  whatever  may  be  the  present  condition 
of  things,  it  is  the  duty  of  him  who  per¬ 
ceives  this  ideal  to  labor  for  its  immediate 
realization.  Though  Heinzen  applied  this 
to  the  political  world,  I  found  it  of  great 
service  in  a  serious  solution,  in  the  final 
settlement  of  my  relation  to  religion.  Lib¬ 
eralism  has  its  isms,  as  you  know,  as  well  as 
Orthodoxy.  One  party  believes  in  destruc¬ 
tion,  another  in  construction.  There  is 
quite  a  tendency  among  many  to  be  fright¬ 
ened  at  any  sign  of  hostility  toward  the 
Church.  If  you  open  your  mouth  against 
it,  they  insist  upon  it  that  you  must  be 
sweet  as  sugar  and  gentle  as  a  zephyr. 
They  seem  to  think  that  a  pioneer  can  work 
with  kid  gloves  on  his  hands,  and  that  the 
Church’s  dungeons  of  despair  and  high,  thick 
walls  of  sectarianism  can  be  battered  down 
by  pelting  them  with  roses.  They  talk  a 
great  deal  about  the  orderly  sequence  of  re¬ 
ligious  ideas,  and  the  work  of  a  cultured 
Liberalism.  Now,  while  I  believe  in  cult¬ 
ure,  and  strive  each  day  to  gain  some,  yet 
I  am  sure  that  to  many  this  word  means 
moral  cowardliness  and  sentimental  aristoc¬ 
racy.  They  shrink  from  the  rough  work 
demanded  of  the  pioneer  ;  and  so,  instead  of 
going  bravely  to  work,  and  by  dint  of  hard 
blows  making  a  clearing  in  the  forests  of  su¬ 
perstition,  they  sow  their  seed  beneath  its 
deep  and  dark  shade,  and  then  wonder  why 
it  doesn’t  grow.  The  excuse  given  for  let¬ 
ting  the  Church  alone  is  that  it  is  not  so 
objectionable  as  it  used  to  be.  But  this  is 
by  no  means  so  certain  as  many  think.  It  is 
true  that  the  lake  of  real  fire  and  brimstone 
has  been  changed  into  a  figure  of  rhetoric, 
illustrating  the  torments  of  conscience  and 
moral  despair.  But,  according  to  their  own 
confession,  spiritual  joys  and  pains  are  more 
intense  than  physical ;  and  so  you  see  that 
this  new  charitable  hell  is  a  great  deal  worse 


6 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Heinzen. 


than  the  old  one.  They  no  longer  torment 
the  unbeliever  with  fire  and  sword.  Still, 
they  socially  ostracize  him,  put  him  under 
a  ban,  whisper  slander  against  him,  warn 
young  people  to  keep  away  from  him  as 
from  a  pest-house,  rob  him  of  his  friends, 
and  insult  his  memory  after  he  is  dead,  all 
of  which,  to  a  sensitive  soul,  is  worse  than 
martyrdom. 

Karl  Heinzen  was  never  deceived  by  any 
of  these  shams.  He  scorned  to  be  tolerated 
or  to  tolerate.  Open  warfare  was  to  him  a 
thousand  times  preferable  to  peace  by  com¬ 
promise.  To  him,  the  Church  was  the  sum 
of  all  villany,  and  Christianity,  in  spite  of  its 
profession  of  universal  love,  a  standing  crime 
against  humanity.  He  saw  that,  while  it 
was  allowed  to  exist,  man  must  be  less  than 
man,  service  that  ought  to  be  given  to  suffer¬ 
ing  flesh  and  blood  wasted  on  phantoms, 
nature  dishonored,  science  obstructed,  art 
debauched,  and  foul  injustice  in  the  social 
order  be  maintained.  For  his  clear  vision 
here,  I  owe  him  a  debt  of  gratitude  I  can 
never  repay.  When  I  think  of  him  in  com¬ 
parison  with  most  liberal  writers,  who,  in¬ 
stead  of  making  truth  clear,  darken  it  with 
their  scholarly  refinements  and  mush  of 
concessions  to  the  Church,  he  seems  to  out¬ 
shine  them  as  the  sun  to  a  farthing  candle. 
I  know  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  crudity 
among  those  that  are  in  the  radical  camp  : 
still,  the  crudest,  most  vulgar  radicalism,  if 
there  be  in  it  nothing  but  denial,  is  far 
better  than  the  timid,  over-refined,  sentimen¬ 
tal,  compromising  spirit  of  those  who  sit 
with  folded  hands,  dreaming  and  taking 
their  ease  upon  the  sunny  banks  of  the 
stream  of  tendency.  The  light  of  reason, 
when  its  flame  burns  clear  and  bright,  dis¬ 
perses  even  the  lingering  fogs  of  supersti¬ 
tion.  It  has  no  more  parley  with  the  man 
who  says,  “  I  feel  that  after  all  there  is  a 
kind  of  a  something  in  the  universe  which  I 
must  call  God  and  worship,”  than  with  the 
most  ignorant,  who  says  he  has  experienced 
a  change  of  heart  and  feels  the  presence  of 
God  in  his  soul.  Each  alike  is  seen  to  be 
an  unhealthy  and  a  disturbing  influence  in 
the  moral  life  of  humanity. 


'  f  i 

Another  lesson  I  learn  from  the  life  of 
this  man  is  one  of  courage.  When  but  a 
young  man,  he  dared  to  speak  words  of  truth 
and  justice  against  oppression  that  endan¬ 
gered  his  life.  Though  for  years  he  had  to 
live  abroad  and  flee  from  place  to  place,  yet 
he  continued  to  labor  for  the  emancipation 
of  his  country  from  the  yoke  of  despotism. 
Though  in  Europe  and  America  much  of 
his  time  was  given  to  journalism,  he  never 
sought,  as  most  do  in  that  profession,  to  set 
his  sails  to  catch  the  favoring  breeze,  but 
always  steered  right  in  the  teeth  of  the 
wind  and  face  of  the  storm,  in  order  to 
rescue  the  distressed.  He  had  ,  the  courage 
of  his  convictions,  and  followed  them  to 
their  farthest  command,  though  it  ever  led 
him  to  the  post  of  danger,  into  the  very 
heart  of  the  conflict.  Possessing  powers 
of  leadership  which,  Wendell  Phillips  says, 
made  the  highest  positions  within  his  reach, 
yet  he  lived  in  comparative  seclusion  and 
sometimes  want  rather  than  betray  a  princi- 
pie  on  which  his  clear  intellect  saw  depended  1 
the  rights  and  joys  of  humanity.  He  be- 
lieved  in  a  perfect  and  just  State,  to  be  real-  j 
ized  by  perfect  democracy.  He  had  faith  in 
the  heart  of  the  people.  He  was  willing  to 
trust  all  to  the  will  of  the  majority,—  not  of 
the  rich,  or  of  the  white  race,  or  of  the  male 
element,  but  of  every  man  and  woman. 
Now  there  are  many  who  profess  to  believe 
in  democracy,  pure  and  simple,  who  are 
afraid  to  carry  it  out  to  its  logical  results. 
Some  wish  to  limit  it  with  a  property  quali¬ 
fication,  others  with  an  educational  one ;  and 
many  think  that,  if  woman  has  the  ballot, 
she  will  enact  prohibitory  laws,  banish 
tobacco,  put  God  in  the  Constitution,  a 
bishop  at  the  White  House,  a  majority  of 
preachers  in  Congress,  the  Bible  and  prayer 
in  all  the  schools,  and  in  every  way  turn  the 
shadow  on  the  dial  of  progress  backward. 

But  Karl  Heinzen  feared  none  of  these 
things.  He  believed  in  right,  and  the  power 
of  right.  Woman  might  put  God  in  the 
Constitution,  but  let  this  perfect  equality  be 
enshrined  above  all,  and  under  its  illuminar 
tion  he  would  soon  come  out  again,  and  not 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Ileinzen. 


7 


only  out  of  the  Constitution,  but  also  out  of 
human  life.  Justice  begets  justice,  and  in¬ 
justice  breeds  injustice.  Reason  sees  that 
pure  and  perfect  democracy  is  the  only  just 
government,  and  therefore  expects  all  things 
that  are  just  will  follow  its  realization.  Let 
the  will  of  the  majority  rule,  and  education 
and  opportunity  for  all  will  be  thrown  wide 
open  to  all. 

It  is  thought  by  some  that  our  government 
is  already  purely  republican  in  principle, 
when  it  is  really  very  far  from  it.  Our 
Constitution  is  modelled  after  that  of  Great 
Britain.  We  have  almost  all  of  its  defects, 
and  lack  many  of  its  virtues.  Our  king  is 
deposed  every  four  years  ;  but  he  has  greater 
power,  and  is  under  far  more  temptation  to 
use  it  for  selfish  purposes.  Our  Senate  is  as 
truly  an  aristocracy  as  the  House  of  Lords. 
Our  people  think  that  they  are  the  sovereign 
power ;  but  they  abandon  their  sovereignty 
the  moment  they  elect  a  representative,  and 
do  not  take  it  again  until  his  time  expires. 
Under  the  debasing  principle  that  to  the 
“victor  belong  the  spoils,”  and  the  vast  power 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  President,  our 
politics  have  degenerated  into  the  foulest 
slums  of  partisanship.  Our  press  is  vile, 
false,  and  malicious  all  through  a  campaign. 
Every  election  rends  the  community  into 
warring  factions,  paralyzes  business,  and 
fills  the  air  with  slanderous  lies  concerning 
the  candidates.  The  party  press  stoops  to 
every  vile  and  dirty  machination,  in  order  to 
conquer.  Corruption  of  the  public  conscience 
in  the  buying  of  votes  and  the  selling  of 
office  is  openly  practised.  Almost  every  paper 
claims  every  virtue  for  its  own  party,  and 
every  vice  as  the  stock  in  trade  of  the  oppo¬ 
sition.  Nothing  is  too  mean  and  malicious 
to  be  printed.  To  use  an  expression  of  Col. 
Ingersoll,  “You  would  think  that  every  editor 
had  a  private  sewer  of  his  own,  into  which 
had  been  emptied  all  the  slops  of  hell.” 
The  nightly  meetings,  hot-headed  speeches, 
appeals  to  the  lowest  passions,  parades,  and 
party  malice  fill  the  air  with  more  obscenity 
than  ever  Comstock  caught,  breeding  the 
unhealthy  children  of  hate  and  jealousy. 


Old  and  young,  down  to  the  very  infants,  are 
infected  with  the  poisonous  contagion.  I 
was  away  from  home  during  the  last  cam¬ 
paign,  and  when  I  returned  I  found  even 
my  little  boys  divided,  and  their  minds  filled 
with  foul  words,  of  which  they  knew  not  the 
meaning,  but  could  not  keep  from  learning, 
because  the  air  was  full  of  them.  Occasion¬ 
ally,  some  one  says  this  ought  to  be  reformed. 
Something  must  be  done,  or  we  shall  be 
ruined.  Here  and  there,  a  pulpit  feebly  says 
the  church  members  should  reform  politics, 
and  then  never  says  a  word  how,  for  fear  of 
losing  a  pew-holder.  After  election,  a  few 
editors,  with  a  slight  flavor  of  conscience  left, 
apologize  in  a  witty  way  for  the  slander  and 
stupid  insanity  that  has  reigned  riot  in  their 
columns  for  months ;  and  that  is  the  last  that 
is  said  or  done  until  the  old  story  is  com¬ 
menced  again.  Not  so  Karl  Heinzen.  He 
never  shirked  a  duty  because  it  failed  to  be 
popular.  He  always  took  the  bull  by  the 
horns,  though  it  threatened  to  kill  him.  To 
him,  all  this  evil  was  the  result  of  a  compro¬ 
mise  in  our  Constitution  between  monarchy 
and  republicanism,  aristocracy  with  democ¬ 
racy,  just  as  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  with 
its  enormous  cost  of  life  and  treasure,  was  the 
result  of  a  compromise  between  slavery  and 
freedom.  And,  if  we  do  not  ere  long  remedy 
this,  the  days  of  the  republic  are  numbered. 
No  candid  person  can  read  his  clear  and 
forcible  arguments  without  being  impressed 
that  they  are  almost,  if  not  altogether,  true. 
Here  it  is  he  resists  the  idea  that  things 
must  be  left  to  take  their  course,  according 
to  the  principle  of  evolution.  Reason  can 
discern  the  perfect  State,  and  should  set 
about  at  once  establishing  and  working  for 
its  construction  by  a  revision  of  the  Consti¬ 
tution.  He  would  have  the  President  and 
Senate  annihilated,  the  legislative  body  to 
be  in  permanent  session,  and  the  executive 
power  consist  of  a  council  elected  from  their 
number,  and  changed  every  year.  All  im¬ 
portant  laws  should  be  settled  by  the  final 
vote  of  the  people,  and  no  law  be  legal  that 
could  be  found  in  any  way  opposed  to  the 
fundamental  principles  of  human  rights. 


8 


Lessons  from,  the  IAfe  and  Work  of  Karl  Heinzen . 


Each  member  of  the  Legislature  to  be  liable 
to  be  recalled  at  any  time  by  vote  of  the 
people,  if  he  should  fail  to  do  their  will.  This 
would  annihilate  parties  and  party  enmity ; 
and  elections  would  be  divided  only  by  a 
choice  between  individuals.  The  law-maker 
being  only  a  servant,  selfish  and  corrupt 
men  would  find  no  attractions  i  n  the  service ; 
and  so  the  men  of  self-sacrifice,  pure  patriot¬ 
ism,  and  enthusiastic  devotion  to  humanity 
would  be  chosen,  and  often  unanimously,  by 
their  respective  communities.  These  ideas, 
my  friends,  are  not  to  be  despised.  Karl 
Heinzen  spoke  more  understandingly  on  this 
subject  than  all  our  frothy  party  newspapers 
and  ignorant,  canting  pulpiteers  put  together. 
His  whole  life  was  a  battle  for  liberty  and 
the  rights  of  humanity.  Ilis  activities  cov¬ 
ered  half  a  century,  and  were  divided  be¬ 
tween  two  continents. 

On  the  soil  of  Germany,  in  Switzerland, 
in  Paris,  and  at  the  centre  of  American  in¬ 
tellectual  life,  he  gave  the  constant  service 
of  his  Titanic  intellect  to  the  understanding 
of  this  subject ;  and  no  man,  living  or  dead, 
deserves  to  be  more  reverently  studied  by 
the  champions  of  truth,  justice,  and  liberty. 
What  grander,  nobler  idea  can  interest  any 
one  than  that  of  a  perfect  State,  a  social 
order  in  which  the  rights  of  all  shall  be 
assured!  We,  as  Liberals,  have  no  church 
or  private  circle,  dividing  us  from  the  rest 
of  mankind,  and  want  none.  We  have  no 
God  to  glorify,  nor  never-dyipg  soul  to  save 
and  fit  it  for  the  sky.  But  we  have  Truth, 
Right,  Liberty,  and  Justice  to  contend  for. 
We  have  countless  wrongs  to  redress. 
Though  the  church  goes,  home  remains, 
with  all  its  infinite  loves  and  joys.  And 
then,  above  all,  because  including  all,  we 
have  the  ideal  State,  the  commonweal,  to 
make  a  reality.  The  trembling  monarchs 
of  Europe  endeavor  to  frighten  back  the 
encroachments  of  radicalism  there  by  point¬ 
ing  to  the  corruption,  and  what  they  are 
pleased  to  call  the  failure,  of  republican  in¬ 
stitutions  in  America.  Not  so.  They  have 
never  been  fully  tried.  We  have  but  the 
groundwork  on  which  a  just  State  may  be 


built.  While  in  Europe  the  red  sword  of 
war  must  be  unloosed  before  the  flag  of  lib¬ 
erty  can  make  beautiful  the  common  air, 
here  we  can  reform  through  the  agency  of 
free  speech,  a  free  press,  and  the  ballot-box. 

Many,  in  reading  the  writings  of  Heinzen, 
would  call  him  a  socialist,  and  perhaps  a 
communist.  In  one  sense  he  was,  but  in 
another  he  was  not.  He  was  too  jealous  of 
the  inestimable  prize  of  personal  liberty  to. 
associate  himself  with  those  who  would  bring 
things  to  a  level  by  force.  No  man  believed 
more  forcibly  in  the  equality  of  human  rights. 

He  also  saw  before  him  an  ideal  of  society 
infinitely  superior  to  the  present  order.  But 
his  mind  was  too  large  and  his  heart  too 
generous  to  allow  him  to  confine  his  sympa¬ 
thies  to  one  class,  even  though  that  class 
were  oppressed.  Liberty,  perfect  liberty,  is 
too  rich  a  boon  to  be  sacrificed  to  any  tem¬ 
porary  suffering.  Hence  he  saw  that  all  ap¬ 
proaches  to  a  more  equitable  adjustment  of 
the  relation  of  labor  and  capital,  rich  and  y 
poor,  weak  and  strong,  would  have  to  be 
brought  about  by  the  elevation  of  all  classes  ^ 
morally.  He  believed  that,  if  the  State  could  > 
be  perfect  in  its  justice,  beneath  such  a  sun¬ 
lit  and  healthful  climate,  the  social  amenities 
of  life  would  bud  and  biossom  into  beauty. 
Another  lesson  to  be  learned  from  Heinzen’s 
life  is  the  moral  power  of  devotion  to  a 
principle. 

The  Church  says  that,  without  faith  in 
God  and  immortality,  life  is  destitute  of  all 
noble  incentive.  And  yet  this  man’s  life, 
though  rejecting  every  part  and  particle  of 
supernaturalism,  was  one  moral  act, —  a 
complete  devotion  to  the  well-being  of  hu¬ 
manity.  I  acknowledge  that  there  are  many 
that  have  cast  off  the  yoke  of  religion  who 
are  no  better  than  they  should  be.  Still, 

I  might  ask,  Who  are  the  swindlers  and 
defaulters  ?  Sunday-school  superintendents 
and  members  of  the  Young  Men’s  Chris¬ 
tian  Association.  Who  are  the  adulterers? 
Often  clergymen.  Who  fill  our  jails  and 
adorn  our  gallows?  Pious  men, — men  who 
have  a  chaplain  to  attend  them  on  State  pay, 
and  die  trusting  in  the  blood  of  Jesus,  ex- 


Lessons  from  the  JAfe  and  Work  of  Karl  Heinzen. 


9 


pecting  to  be  psalm-singing  saints,  while 
their  victims,  cut  off  without  time  to  send 
for  the  chaplain,  are  weeping  and  gnashing 
their  teeth  in  eternal  torment.  Unbelief, 
they  claim,  produces  immorality.  We  are 
ready  for  the  test.  We  invite  an  examina¬ 
tion.  We  know  that  the  facts  will  prove 
this  to  be  an  infamous  slander,  and  one  more 
immorality  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
Church.  Morality  is  the  practice  of  good¬ 
ness.  Good  is  whatever  contributes  to  the 
happiness  of  mankind.  Evil  is  whatever 
produces  misery.  To  make  the  world  hap¬ 
pier  is  our  religion.  The  fact  is,  there  is 
no  real,  true  morality  that  is  not  founded 
on  intelligent  unbelief.  The  morality  of 
belief  is  simply  that  of  hire  and  barter.  It 
savors  of  the  shop.  It  says,  I  do  this  for 
you,  God,  and  you  give  me  a  crown  and  a 
harp.  The  morality  of  freethought  is  right 
for  right’s  sake ;  nor  does  it  demand,  as 
the  believer  does,  a  wave  of  feeling  or  an 
impulse  of  love.  It  is  devotion  to  a  prin¬ 
ciple  on  which  reason  sees  the  happiness  of 
mankind  depends.  There  never  was  a 
greater  falsehood  seeking  to  hide  the  shining 
stars  of  truth  than  this  outcry  of  the  Church 
against  the  immorality  of  unbelief.  There 
is  more  morality  in  such  a  life  as  that  of 
Karl  Heinzen’s  than, in  the  whole  Church. 
To  make  men  moral,  to  cleanse  them  of  the 
foul  hypocrisy  of  saintship,  to  take  them 
out  of  the  vile,  haggling,  cheating,  huck¬ 
stering  stalls  of  the  Church,  in  which  men 
and  women  waste  their  lives  trying  to  drive 
a  good  bargain  with  God,  is  our  mission. 
What  an  infinite  lie  and  absurdity  the  whole 
mockery  of  the  Church  is  in  the  presence 
of  one  real,  just  man  !  No  wonder  that  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation  drives  them  to 
traduce  and. endeavor  to  cast  mud  upon  him. 
But  this  cannot  last.  In  every  community 
there  are  rising  up  men  and  women  who 
hate  and  detest  the  Church  as  a  loathsome 
sepulchre,  full  of  death  and  corruption,  who 
yet  live  so  ungtained  in  word  and  deed  that 
their  light  shines  clear  and  bright  above 
all  dim,  murky,  flickering  lamps  of  grace 
divine. 


But  I  am  nearing  the  end  of  my  task,  or 
rather  coming  to  the  end,  without  having 
achieved  the  task  I  set  myself  to  perform. 
The  ideal  or  vision  of  this  man’s  heart  and 
mind  that  I  wished  to  bring  for  your  inspi¬ 
ration  soars  far  above  my  reach.  The  glow 
at  my  heart  seems  to  freeze  when  it  falls 
from  my  lips  in  words.  I  feel  like  one  who 
has  gone  out  in  the  morning  and  gathered 
a  bouquet  of  flowers  all  sparkling  with  dew, 
but  before  reaching  those  to  whom  he  would 
give  them  finds  that  they  have  lost  all  their 
pearly  beauty.  So  you  must  even  take  the 
will  for  the  deed,  and  trust  that  there  is 
more  in  what  I  have  said  than  there  seems. 
The  life  of  such  a  man  is  in  itself  a  proph¬ 
ecy  that  can  only  be  told  in  words  that 
seem  like  riddles.  Because  such  men  live, 
hope. flames  brighter  above  us,  love  glows 
warmer  in  our  breasts,  the  dark,  dank 
shadows  of  superstition  are  lifted  from  our 
lives  :  we  cease  to  be  a  discord  to  ourselves ; 
wisdom  and  love  blend  together  in  sweetest 
harmony.  To  live  and  be  a  man  is  greater 
than  to  be  crowned  king,  or  think  ourselves 
sons  of  God.  We  gladly  cast  from  us  the 
livery  of  divine  servitude,  and  clothe  our¬ 
selves  in  the  beautiful  garments  of  hu¬ 
manity.  Reason’s  brightening  lamp  leads 
us  to  higher  and  nobler  paths.  No  longer 
quenching  wonder  in  a  name  or  darkening 
truth  with  senseless  omnipotence,  Nature 
feeds  us  silently  our  fill.  O  my  friends, 
learn  wrhat  you  can  of  this  man’s  life,  and 
of  all  men.  To  live  beneath  the  sun  by 
day  and  the  moon  and  stars  by  night;  to 
tread  this  green  earth  so  thickly  strewn 
with  wonders ;  to  stand  related  to  our  fel¬ 
low-men  in  all  the  unspeakable  joys  and 
sorrows  of  life, —  how  dull  and  stupid  must 
be  the  mind  that  needs  a  voice  from  the 
skies  to  instruct  him  to  walk  worthy  of  so 
high  a  calling,  to  so  live  and  labor  that 
when  his  place  is  filled  by  others  they  shall 
find  it  easier  to  find  their  way  through  the 
forest,  or  shall  pluck  the  fruit  of  joy  from 
some  tree  he  has  planted  in  the  garden  of 
sorrow ! 

Karl  Heinzen  sleeps  the  dreamless  sleep 


10 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Heinzen. 


of  eternal  rest.  He  lies  to-day  beneath  the 
forest  trees  he  loved.  Shall  I  say  he  ?  Nay. 
He  is  not  there.  He,  like  one  of  old,  has 
risen,  not  in  the  flesh,  nor  that  I  know  of 
into  spiritual' consciousness.  I  do  not  say 
he  has  not,  because  I  know  not  all  the 
secrets  of  life,  much  more  of  death.  But 
he  is  not  hidden  within  the  tomb.  Friends 
may  plant  flowers  there  and  water  them 
with  tears,  a  marble  monument  may  mark 
the  place  of  his  rest ;  but  when  the  flowers 
are  all  dead,  when  the  trees  have  fallen  be¬ 
neath  the  axe  or  the  hand  of  time,  when 
the  marble  has  crumbled  back  into  dust  and 
the  very  place  is  blotted  from  the  memory 
of  man,  Karl  Heinzen  will  live  on  with 
an  ever-widening  influence  in  the  thoughts 
and  loves  of  men.  It  matters  but  little 
whether  his  name  live  or  die :  the  work  for 
truth  and  humanity  he  wrought  shall  en¬ 
dure  while  men  exist.  Things  are  not  what 
they  seem.  The  great  men  of  this  age  are 
not  those  who  are  feasted,  toasted,  and  run 
after  by  the  crowd,  but  the  patient  pioneers 
who  with  giant  blows  are  making  a  clearing 


in  the  forests  of  superstition,  causing  the 
wilderness  to  blossom  as  a  rose,  and  for 
the  sickening,  deadly  malaria  of  piety  that 
saps  the  manhood  of  our  age  bringing  the 
health  of  self-reliance  and  the  joy  of  self- 
respect.  They  are  the  men  and  women 
who  through  the  long  night-watches  of  the 
world’s  ignorance  keep  brightly  flaming  the 
torch  of  thought,  and  so  are  constantly 
widening  the  skirts  of  light  and  making  the 
struggle  with  darkness  narrower.  When 
man  comes  to  his  own ;  when  each  child 
born  into  the  world  finds  all  the  avenues  of 
truth  open  to  his  exploring  mind ;  when  art 
gladdens  every  eye  with  its  cheering  ray; 
when  right  and  justice  between  man  and 
man  are  the  only  gods ;  when  the  State  in 
its  devotion  to  the  happiness  of  all  is  but 
the  outward  expression  of  the  best  instincts 
of  humanity ;  when  the  heaven  men  strive 
to  win  is  on  the  earth  and  the  highest  honor 
known  is  to  be  a  man, —  then,  but  not  be¬ 
fore,  will  be  learned  the  full  life  and  lesson 
of  Karl  Heinzen. 


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I  wish  to  notify  the  public  that  all  books  and  pamphlets  purporting  to  contain  my  lectures,  and  not  containing 
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